Nonprofits Surviving Tough Times

Carter Wolf, Executive Director, Horizon House, Indianapolis

As we head into the final weeks of the year and continued economic uncertainty, I invite all nonprofit leaders to share what they have learned from past downturns and what they are doing now. The following is from Carter Wolf, Executive Director at Horizon House, a homeless services provider in Indianapolis. You can comment on Carter’s ideas below or send your own short article to: Bryan@NotforprofitNews.com

Every economic downturn has different causes that require different strategies for non-profits but there are usually a few tried and true principles that can work for all of us. Since no one has a silver bullet we need to evaluate threats and opportunities that apply to our particular sector. Here are 10 tips:

1. Get advice from everyone. Good ideas will emerge from reading and networking. The IU Center on Philanthropy (see COP below) recently printed some good ideas about fund raising during economic slowdowns. For-profit business journals will be offering advice that NFP’s could use as well.
2. Focus on your mission. Be careful about “mission drift” at all times but especially now. See what part of your mission deserves the most focus if you have to make cuts.
3. Do not cut fund raising staff or costs. The corporate model in downtimes is “build sales, cut inventories.” Your development staff is your sales staff.
4. Refine and recommit to your fund raising strategic plan.
5. Frame your stories around what your organization is doing to solve community problems during these tough times. For example the Neighborhood Christian Legal Clinic has been featuring the service they provide to those in foreclosure.
6. Rely on your Board members. They can fill certain roles better then staff such as calling donors to thank them. (Ref COP)
7. Focus on your existing donor base by communicating and nurturing them to remind them of what you are doing. (Ref COP).
8. Stay in communication with major donors and foundations. If changes from them are on the horizon, they will usually let you know as early as possible.
9. Traditionally growth in annual giving may go down but it is still growth. Make sure you are part of it. (Ref COP).
10. Reduce debt, stay as liquid as possible. Make sure your reserves are large enough to cover payroll as well as unplanned expenses.

Sept 8 IBJ Article on Expanding Arts Funding

I am always honored to be contacted by a member of the team at the Indianapolis Business Journal when they are putting an article together on the nonprofit sector because I believe that nonprofits typically receive more attention to bad news than to the amazing good that we do. This past weekend the IBJ did an extended article on an alternative or supplemental method of arts funding that many communities around the country have been using for years, a workplace giving and community campaign - think of it as a United Way™ for arts and culture. I was quoted as suggesting that something like this could be a possibility to help address the cutback in city funding for the arts while also raising visibility of our wide and varied arts community. Others were not so optimistic.

Since quotes rarely convey a perspective, I wanted to share my thoughts and would welcome your feedback.


I see it as an AND, not an OR, conversation. In order for Indianapolis to continue on its current track of becoming a world-class city, we will need to invest in arts and culture. That means finding both innovative and convenient ways to attract funds to both large and small arts and culture organizations. While looking to government or a tourism-related tax is one angle, it should not exclude other possibilities. Neither should looking to the Lilly Endowment for their next round of funding – it is hard to imagine our community without the commitment and investment of the Lilly Endowment, but they can’t be THE answer. The mention of a community effort like Fort Wayne Arts United or Cincinnati Fine Arts Fund is an opportunity to be open to new possibilities – especially since Plan A is losing $500K a year right now.


Some key points:


We must lift up United Way – an unintended consequence of this type of effort could be competition for the average wage earner with United Way’s annual fall campaign – which should be on everyone’s priority list right now. I have been a donor, supporter, and advocate for United Way for more than 25 years. I have run workplace campaigns and served as a Loaned Executive. They do amazing work around issues that are so much more complex than most of the community realizes.


Maybe new could be different – I remember attending campaign meetings, filling out pledge cards, collecting pledge cards and mailing them in for processing. Today, the web and giving portals open new possibilities for what a campaign could look like and how it might be run. We also have three of the longest running community campaigns in cities that are within two hours of us – they might entertain opportunities to leverage the infrastructures they have built just as our United Way has set a great collaborative tone in sharing technology resources across many of the larger community campaigns.


Every giver is a philanthropist - We too often get caught up in the million dollar gifts and naming efforts as “real philanthropy”. The IBJ writer used the unfortunate terminology of “cubicle drone” to refer to the masses of citizens across our community who actively support our sector through their charitable giving, volunteering, attendance at events and performances, etc. While it is certainly more efficient, in the short-term, to derive funding for the arts from a few sources, United Way has successfully shown that engaging the hundreds of thousands of everyday philanthropists like you and me is where you really begin to make an impact.


Thanks for listening,

Bryan

Can Your Neighbor Name a Good 'Nonprofit'?

(By Bryan - Published in our Not-for-Profit News - Indy 4/15 and Cincy 4/17)

I can’t count how many conversations I have had with people who gave me a questioning look when I said that I work with “nonprofits”. They will often ask “What do you mean by nonprofit? Can you give me an example?”

Add to that an on-going debate about how we might better name our sector by describing what we ARE instead of what we ARE NOT – maybe Social Benefit Organization or Community Corporation, instead of Nonprofit or Not-for-Profit.

I was pleased to be invited by the Central Indiana Community Foundation to hear Robert Egger speak on April 7. Mr. Egger is the Founder and President of the DC Central Kitchen, where unemployed men and women learn marketable culinary skills while foods donated by restaurants and caterers are converted into balanced meals. Since 1989, they have distributed 17+ million meals and helped 600+ people gain full-time employment.

Robert is the author of the award-winning book, Begging for Change: The Dollars and Sense of Making Nonprofits Responsive, Efficient and Rewarding For All. He has family ties to southeast Indiana and a brother who lives in Indianapolis.

The core of his message was around three points:

• The nonprofit sector is in a position where regulation can be imposed by the government and we have little or no voice to provide input or participate in the debate.
• There is no regular media analysis of our work. We either get fluffy ‘feel good’ stories or stories of scandal and corruption. The media makes no attempt to define good nonprofits or lesser nonprofits. He would love to see opinions expressed just as they are on restaurants and movies.
• The average American can’t name a good nonprofit, though the sector makes up almost 10% of our economy (employment and GDP). People don’t realize they are served by nonprofits everyday – (NPR, church, hospital, YMCA, etc

Some of his thoughts on what we can do about it:

• Work together as a sector. Attend Nonprofit Congress in June. Form a state nonprofit association (Indiana).
• Raise the visibility of the nonprofit sector in politics. Ask candidates for every office – “How would you partner with the nonprofit sector?” You can check out his v3 campaign at http://www.v3campaign.org/
• Support local businesses that provide livable wages and benefits
  

More Job Transition from For-profit to Nonprofit

On Wednesday, March 26, Tom Baldwin of Baldwin Gilman, a leading executive recruiting firm in Cincinnati and Dick Aft, retired President of United Way of Great Cincinnati and now an associate at Baldwin Gilman, hosted a panel discussion about making the move from the for-profit into the not-for-profit sector.

They were gracious enough to allow me to attend and I wrote the following article.

Cincinnati Not-for-Profit News Is Off to a Great Start

We are just a few weeks in and already 250 subscribers toward our July 1 goal of 1000-1500. We have found Cincinnati area nonprofit leaders to be very open and welcoming. I am really looking forward to getting to know the community better and working with the people I have met.

FMI about the Indy or Cincy editions, go to www.NotforProfitNews.com

Not-for-Profit News starting in Cincinnati

In addition to all the routine fun of working with nonprofits, publishing the Indpls Not-for-Profit News, being a dad and husband - much of my attention the past few months has been on exploring the Cincinnati nonprofit sector. I have been very impressed by what I have learned. Cincinnati has a long tradition of philanthropy and a vibrant nonprofit sector. Since they are on the Ohio River, they were settled earlier and bring a more historic feel in many regards than Indianapolis while also having the beauty that comes from a major waterway.

They have a Fine Arts Fund that actively raises money for the arts through a Spring workplace giving campaign that compliments the United Way campaign in the fall that focuses on human services.

The Resource is a nonprofit that solicits donations of furniture, office equipment, office and cleaning supplies and more and then sells them to nonprofits for a handling fee of pennies on the dollar.

The Leadership Council of Human Services Executives is a round table group with over 120 members that evolved from the United Way Executives group and now works to build leadership across the full human services sector.

And Ohio has a state nonprofit association, based in Columbus that provides some support in advocacy and training.

If you are interested in learning more, I hope you will subscribe to the Cincinnati Not-for-Profit News - for Free and help us spread the word.

http://www.notforprofitnews.com/newsletter/cincysignupform.htm

Are There Too Many Nonprofits?

With some estimates now exceeding 1.4 million charitable nonprofits nationally, it is easy to make the case that we don't need more. Still, every year 30-50,000 new nonprofits are created - each requiring board members, volunteers, and some combination of donations, foundation grants, corporate support, government funding, etc.

On the other side of the debate, I hear experienced nonprofit leaders talk about the importance of these new organizations to drive fresh ideas, new approaches, bring new leaders into the nonprofit sector, and increase awareness or focus on a particular issue.

If it were up to you, what criteria would you use to determine when a new nonprofit is needed and when it is not?